Friday, September 14, 2012

"This is the video of the AeroPac 2012 successful flight to 104,659' AGL on Tuesday 9/11/2012. It was a two stage flight with fully commercial certified motors - an AeroTech N1000 staging to an AeroTech M685. Full recovery (the airframe was flown again on Thursday 9/13/2012). There was full GPS lock on the sustainer and the booster. The tracks of both components were streamed in real-time to APRS database as KG6DLV-4 and KG6DLV-5."

This looks like a winning flight for the Carmack Prize as it has GPS lock through apogee, and went over 100,000 feet agl with full recovery. This is a really big week for the Carmack prize and rocketry in general as several attempts are now being made to push the performance of hobby impulse rockets (motors under O power) to extreme levels. Two additional flights will be attempted soon with the mighty N5800. They are both expected to match or even break the altitude of this two stage flight! For my part, I am extremely happy to see onboard footage for this attempt. That is a crucial part of documenting a flight and sharing the experience with others in the hobby. The GPS profile shows significant deviation to the west. This is a major concern with two stage flights of this power, as well as flights using slow burning motors. The upper stage made it half-way to California!